International Women's Day 2025
Dated: 07 Mar, 2025
It is International Women’s Day on Saturday the 8th of March!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we have looked back at the essential and innovative additions women have made to the automotive industry.
Here are just three of the many things invented by women that have improved our safe driving experience.
Windscreen wipers
Mary Anderson first created the windscreen wiper in 1903 when she observed trolleybus drivers having to open the window or even stopping the vehicle to clean the rain from their windscreens.
She designed a tool that could be operated from within the trolleybus which was a ‘window-cleaning device for removing snow, rain and sleet from the glass in front of the motorman’. It consisted of a lever controlling a spring-loaded arm with a rubber blade. She added a counterweight to keep the wiper blade in touch with the glass.
This was further developed by Charlotte Bridgwood in 1917, whose design used rollers instead of blades and was operated electrically. The ‘Electric Storm Windshield Cleaner’ was patented in 1917 and whilst the rollers never really caught on the idea of removing the distraction of the manual operation definitely did.
It is an offence to drive a vehicle if ‘the condition of the motor vehicle or trailer, or of its accessories or equipment’ ‘is such that the use of the motor vehicle or trailer involves a danger of injury to any person.’ So it’s thanks to these ladies that our vehicles are safer to drive today.
Brake pads
Bertha Benz (yes, the wife of Carl Benz) could be said to be one reason why we all drive the ‘horseless carriage’ today. Back in 1888 there wasn’t much enthusiasm for the motor car with many people actively mistrusting it. She decided to promote the vehicle by driving her sons across country to demonstrate how safe and practical it was. En route she made a number of ad hoc repairs including coming up with a repair when the car’s wooden brakes failed. She asked a cobbler on the journey to add leather soles as replacements to the brakes which would provide more resistance than the bare wood. Not only that, she also managed and oversaw the business of Benz and Co., suggested improvements to the fuel line and adding a gear system to later models.
Rearview mirror
Dorothy Levitt is credited with inventing the rearview mirror as she had suggested carrying a hand mirror in her 1909 booklet ‘The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women who Motor or Who Want to Motor’ She was a British racing driver and journalist who taught a number of women how to drive and wanted to take the mystery out of driving for women. In her booklet she gives advice on costs, mechanisms of the car, tips, and adverts useful to women motorists.
In the booklet Dorothy suggested packing the following items in the ‘little drawer under the seat of the car’:
- A pair of clean gloves.
- An extra handkerchief.
- Clean veil.
- Powder-puff (unless you despise them).
- Hair pins and ordinary pins.
- A hand mirror.
- Some chocolates ‘as these are very soothing sometimes’.
She refers further to the mirror by suggesting to take it ‘out of the little drawer and put it into the little flap pocket of the car. You will find it useful to have it handy – not strictly for personal use, but to occasionally hold up to see what is behind you.’ Ever safety conscious, Dorothy wrote that the driver can ‘see in a flash what is in the rear without losing your forward way, and without releasing your right-hand grip of the steering wheel.’
These are only three of the inventions that women have made to improve the transport industry but, sadly, these were only recognised long after patents had lapsed, or ideas were taken on by others.
